For years the retail sector has been making use of customer data to propel their own marketing campaigns forward. What remains to be seen in this regard is, how the future of better data collection and technology, coupled with an enhanced need for customer personalization shakes up this procedure in the future.
For the retail sector the future promises amplified feasibility and a better distribution network. We even have data centric innovations that use up data to point out towards what the customers want. On the other side of the coin, customers love every little bit of personalization that is thrown at them. Personalization feels like a brand is communicating with them, and they love every bit of it. But, the only drawback here is that customers are beginning to question what happens to data collected by or through them? Simply put, customers want the best of both worlds; a complete personalized experience, with the perks of enhanced privacy. The onus now lies on protagonists within the retail sector, and how they are able to meet these enhanced needs from customers.
Up Close with Customers
The recent wave towards providing a better customer experience has meant that retailers now value customers more than they ever did before. This has meant that retailers are bidding to go up close with customers and find out exactly what they are looking for. A recent study conducted at a mass level across the globe has garnered sufficient insight into what the customers want from this digital transformation. Are they okay with the huge chunks of data that is collected through them? Or, are they just indifferent to the whole issue? Let’s have a look at some of the most interesting facts and figures found out through this authentic research.
The key here is to get all the basics right. The journey for better customer satisfaction begins with understanding what customers want, because if this is not achieved organizations actually risk losing customers.
Providing Personalization
Providing personalization is not as simple as it seems. With over millions of customers at times, ensuring a personalized experience requires the power of smart analytics. Data algorithms lead the way in this regard and provide a simple yet proficient solution. Data from multiple sources can be fed to these algorithms, which can in turn give retailers the right tools for targeting the right customers through a seamless form of personalization across all channels.
Several fashion brands have already implemented the right mix of personalization. Fashion brands have realized the importance of personalization in their offerings and have come up with ways to predict products that will appeal to a certain customer. Another subtle approach to the conundrum of personalization will be for retailers to give customers the leverage of shaping their loyalty cards according to their own preferences. This would mean that customers could tailor the offers they get on their loyalty cards based on their preferences. But, despite the benefits of personalization it often collides with interests of customers who want their data to be safe and secure. To understand this better, we need to take a look at GDPR regulations.
GDPR
What the new General Data Protection Regulation Law does is it shifts data control from businesses to clients. Using this control, clients would be able to specifically decide the companies they want to store their data and the companies they would rather pass. Moreover, they can specify the manner they want their data to be used by such organizations. As per the GDPR, clients can exercise the following rights:
Ask the Readers
Every single customer can give their insight to propose a solution to this conundrum. This is why we ask all our readers to suggest whether customers need a solution to control their data? And should consumers communicate with companies anonymously, by sharing some basic information or by providing personal data? Below you can find an example how you can (temporarily) provide access to the personal information you would like to share so the retailer can personalize its offers.
We look forward to seeing what you think and how retailers can flex their offerings based on the opinion of all customers.
Originally appeared here. Published with permission.
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Big data has proven to be more than just a buzzword floating around the business-world. The industry has continued to grow at a rapid pace, and the global big data market is expected to hit over $40 billion in 2018. More and more companies in multiple sectors and industries are getting in on this valuable technology.
So why are some small-to-medium sized businesses (SMBs) and startups still holding out?
The truth is that many smaller companies feel that there are just too many challenges in their way when it comes to using this big data. This relatively new and swiftly changing form of technology can be intimidating, but the rewards far outweigh the risks. In fact, IDC’s 2017 survey found that 87% of SMBs saw better results than they anticipated once they invested in data technology.
Big data has shown to be especially effective when applied to project management strategies. If your business is considering adding big data to their project management methods, then they will need to be aware of the challenges they will face and the tactics to use to overcome them.
Let’s discuss.
Multiple Team Coordination
One of the greatest qualities of big data is that it is not limited to any single branch. It can help marketing teams develop better strategies, accounting departments budget more efficiently, and make sure IT departments have the best information at their fingertips.
However, one of the biggest challenges that businesses face is coordinating this type of technology between various departments. Project management with big data requires leaders to manage cross-functionally across multiple teams and departments. For example, big data can bring tremendous results for sales teams, but only if they are able to coordinate their findings with marketing and web development departments for a unified strategy. Project leaders are responsible to make sure this happens.
If a business is ready to start using big data for development and project planning, they must implement the best tools to encourage team coordination and organization. Many teams have found that web based project management is especially effective for keeping teams virtually connected through every step. Businesses that started using project management programs saw significant spikes in productivity, communication, and overall project quality, with 75% of teams successfully reaching their goals.
Coordination and communication are vital to any team project, especially when big data systems are involved.
Knowing How to Apply it
Last year, 16.1 billion zettabytes (one ZB = trillion gigabytes) of data was generated on a daily basis. While that number is certainly remarkable, by 2025, that number is expected to increase to 163 ZB every single day. Due to the sheer volume and complexity, many struggle to know what exactly certain datasets mean and how they can apply new advancements to their organization.
Project leaders must be creative and find new ways to implement big data resources into their business. Sadly, poor application of data can cost businesses big time, with estimates between 6% to up to 30% of revenue lost. In order to avoid this catastrophic mistake and properly use the information provided through data analysis, businesses need to be open-minded to change and innovation.
Once teams know how relevant datasets will benefit and guide their efforts, they will be able to apply it more accurately. Project managers must push teams to find new ways to use their data findings for improved results.
Staying on Top of New Developments
The industry of big data is constantly changing, evolving, and expanding, causing many small businesses to question whether or not they can keep up with latest developments. As more businesses begin to rely on big data, industries are predicting a major shortage in 2018 of up to 190,000 workers who can fulfill the necessary roles for proper data analytics. Becoming a data-driven organization will require teams to stay educated on the latest developments in the field.
Project managers should encourage everyone involved to stay educated and up-to-date with big data developments. There are lots of courses offered online for education and certification in data science that could be beneficial to project leaders and managers. Leaders should set an example for their team members by familiarizing themselves with big data trends and terms while sharing their findings with others. There are lots of intricacies and misunderstandings when it comes to big data, so managers must stay on their toes and informed in order to lead their organization to success.
Businesses of all sizes should be proactive when it comes to training their employees so that they don’t fall behind or use outdated practices. By pushing for continued education, startups and SMBs can pave the way in their industry and surpass their competitors who fail to adapt.
Conclusion
Big data has the potential to revolutionize traditional project management practices. From planning strategies based on reliable metrics, to accurately measuring results, companies seem to only gain from implementing big data to their systems.
It is important for small businesses and startups to understand the incredible impact that big data can have on their success. This realization can help fuel project managers and team members alike to come up with creative strategies and innovative ways to collect and apply big data metrics.
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With the prospect of GDPR looming – many of us are starting to ask a lot of questions about the regulation, and what it means for our business. The astronomical penalties that will come into place for those found not complying with GDPR has lead to it becoming one of the most talked about issues in the world of business, and more specifically in marketing sphere.
It’s for that reason the Head of Marketing at leading UK-based SaaS business AppInstitute, Nabeena Mali, wrote this monster 6000+ word guide to help fellow marketers and businesses alike get to know these new regulations. The article gives a rundown of what exactly GDPR is, what it means for you, and an FAQ section answering 21 of the most searched questions relating to GDPR.
Wondering whether GDPR will affect UK businesses after Brexit? Or even if it will affect you at all? Maybe you’re a USA based business. Will you need to start thinking about GDPR compliance?
Learn the answers to these questions and more including what types of marketing will need to take extra care after the GDPR comes into effect – and some key actionable tips for ensuring your employees remain compliant with the new standard.
Check it out here: https://appinstitute.com/gdpr-guide/
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The universe of banking and payments is ever evolving. 2017 has seen a number of significant changes in the payments industry, thanks to advances in technology. Consumers now have access to a myriad of ways to pay. As a result, payment and shopping habits change. e-Commerce and m-Commerce methods such as in-app and one-click commerce are becoming increasingly popular. In addition, the exponential growth of IoT, one can foresee a wealth of new payment use-cases over the next few months. In this infographic, we present 10 key trends that will shape the payments industry in 2018.
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Data Visualization is an art of presenting data in a manner that even a non-analyst can understand it. A perfect blend of aesthetic elements like colours, dimensions and labels can create visual masterpieces, hence revealing surprising business insights which in turn helps businesses to make informed decisions.
Data Visualization is an inevitable aspect of business analytics. As more and more sources of data are getting discovered, business managers at all levels embrace data visualization tool in order to analyze trends visually and take quick decisions.
It also allows data scientists to converse with their end users, because most of the times, the outcome of data analysis may not be immediately comprehensible to the people who do not directly deal with data. Data visualization bridges that gap and makes people appreciate the possibility of the data analysis.
Tableau
Tableau is a Business Intelligence tool for visually analyzing the data. Users can create and distribute an interactive and shareable dashboard, which depicts the trends, variations, and density of the data in the form of graphs and charts. Tableau can connect to files, relational and Big Data sources to acquire and process data. The software allows data blending and real-time collaboration, which makes it very unique. It is used by businesses, academic researchers, and many government organizations for visual data analysis. It is also positioned as a leader Business Intelligence and Analytics Platform in Gartner Magic Quadrant.
Let’s make our hands dirty and make some visualizations!!
The following table tells you how to choose the right visualization for your dataset out of many available options.
We are going to work upon Amazing mart dataset to make different types of plots and to combine them using Tableau.
Let’s load data into tableau!!
After loading data, check out the information present in the file and check what we must do. Our aim is to create plots and combine them together.
Let’s join the sheets present in the dataset. By default tableau picks inner join by taking common key between files.
Just drag and drop the sheets or click on the sheet name to join them. After making the join, let’s make some visualizations. Go to sheet1 to see what tableau made using this data.
Make a line chart using Tableau
Drag order date to Columns shelf and you will see by default it will show a year there is plus icon if you press that it will convert that year into quarters, months, weeks and days according to requirements. Here in this plot we are considering months. We are plotting line chart between months and Sales.
We can change this line chart into different charts by going into marks shelf and changing automatically to some other type of a bar chart.
Let’s make a plot showing same data for different categories.
Combining Plots
When working with multiple measures in a view, you can customize the mark type for each distinct measure. These measures can be displayed as individual axes, blended axes, or dual axes.
Because each measure can have customized marks, you can customize the level of detail, size, shape, and colour encoding for each measure too.
Here we are combing targets measure into a plot to compare how the company is performing.
If we see below graph it is showing two different plots in one plot which giving insights about sales and targets achieved by each category.
But it’s difficult for us to compare which category is doing well. Using Tableau we can make it very much easy to visualize and get which category is doing well.
Dual Axis Plot
Dual axes are useful when you have two measures that have different scales.
Mouse over to axis and right click we get a menu and select the dual axis to merge this both plots.
If we see here both plots merged but if we see the axis on either side it’s not same and it will be difficult to say which category is doing well. So synchronize this axis using menu when we click right mouse click on axis.
This shows dual axis plot and through this we can predict which category is doing well.
Another example showing a combination of plots.
We can combine different plots like line and bar chart, many other combinations according to the requirements.
Conclusion
Tableau is the richest data visualization tool available in the market. Tableau provides flexibility to users to make great insights using drag and drop functionality. There are so many more insights that can be unlocked from the data we have. Explore more by combining diverse types of plots. Practice more to be perfect.
This article was written by Juturu Pavan, Chaitanya Sagar, and Saneesh Veetil of Perceptive Analytics, which provides data analytics, business intelligence and reporting services to e-commerce, retail and pharmaceutical industries. Its client roster includes Fortune 500 and NYSE listed companies in the USA and India.
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High-tech advancements that contribute to an increasingly digital world are evident in almost every industry imaginable. Companies know to remain competitive, they must look for ways to keep customers happy and impress other stakeholders with their business prowess. The travel sector is rising to the challenge in fascinating ways that bring multiple benefits.
Better Management of Airport Operations Through Mixed Reality
Anyone who has ever been in an airport for more than a few minutes can tell it’s a highly coordinated facility with tight management of airplanes, passenger needs and more. Recently, the Helsinki Airport and SITA, an air transport IT provider, used a device called the Microsoft HoloLens to evaluate ways to improve airport operations.
The HoloLens is the first self-contained tool in the world that lets users interact with digital content and holograms in their environments. For this airport project, the participants used mixed reality, which combines virtual reality and augmented reality, to visualize and view the airport’s operations. They could watch people move through the building, check aircraft positions and more. It was even possible to see how long an individual passenger spent in an airport store.
The technology provided by the HoloLens is still in its early stages. However, the people involved in the trial said that the visuals were not disorientating. They also liked how the device had a long battery life and did not get too hot during use.
Using Past Data to Recommend Future Travels
When people arrive at their destinations, they often feel unsure of what to do and where to go first. In other cases, they feel ready to go globetrotting but are so overwhelmed that just getting started seems like an insurmountable obstacle.
Solving both of these problems, Tickets Round The World compiled frequent around-the-world trips based on customer data. Their customers can book multi-destination trips and efficiently travel the world, seeing the most destinations for the least amount of money.
Delivering Relevant Information Through Digital Signage
The tourism board of Pendle, a borough in the United Kingdom, installed a 65-inch digital panel that doubles as a brochure rack. The screen above the printed travel materials shows footage of some of the top sights in Pendle, plus helps visitors understand why people from the area are so proud of it.
The tourism authorities placed the piece in a local coffee shop and reported that its presence has delighted the visitors frequenting the retail outlet. Additionally, there is evidence that the digital board has boosted traffic to the official Pendle tourism website.
Airports also use digital signs to help customers get their bearings and take care of necessities that they’d otherwise need human help to accomplish. For example, a video screen can show a person how to get between terminals or locate the nearest restroom. Alternatively, a digital panel could also display details about sales at nearby shops or let people know what to expect when eating at a particular restaurant.
Traveling is overwhelming at times. However, thanks to digital enhancements like these, people are more equipped to enjoy smooth transitions regardless of their destination and how long they’ll be away.
Digital Initiatives to Improve Customer Experiences
Many people use digital technology to make life easier. It makes sense, then, that some forward-thinking travel brands are exploring ways to enhance people’s overall impressions with tech-driven offerings.
Marriott, in particular, seems ready to embrace digital immediately and as part of their long-term plans. It recently opened M Beta at the Charlotte Marriott City Center location. Billed as the only “live beta” hotel in the world, the M Beta facility is an innovation testing ground for a wide variety of customer-centric initiatives.
These offerings include access to more than 1,000 fitness workouts broadcast on screens in an ultra-modern gym, personal greeters and an on-site marketplace filled with local merchandise. Marriott gauges reactions to those perks in real-time through “Beta Buttons” located throughout the building. People simply push them to indicate they like a particular offering in the hotel. Digital screens allow everyone else to keep track of the positive gestures too.
There are also examples of companies not solely involved in the travel industry catering to people who are away from home. One of them is Chubb, an insurance agency that released a revamped version of its Travel Smart app. Geared towards business travelers, the app collects and filters news from thousands of worldwide sources. A 24/7 team of experts reviews the compiled content.
If they verify that travelers are at risk based on what the news headlines indicate, Chubb pushes notifications to those individuals, usually within 15-20 minutes of a potentially dangerous issue arising. It’s then easier for people on the go to decide whether to take emergency action based on the provided information.
The app also gives insights for people to use before they leave home that relate to the quality of healthcare facilities in their destinations, the value of the local currency, a country’s entry requirements and similar topics.
This brief overview gives a glimpse into some of the most exciting recent happenings in the travel sector.
Due to these and other improvements, travelers, as well as people working in the industry, could notice remarkable and positive changes that forever alter how people manage their trip-related needs.
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